Metropolitan State University of Denver’s Chalane Lechuga, Ph.D., is this year’s recipient of the Colorado Coalition for the Educational Advancement of Latinxs Faculty Impact Practice Award. The award recognizes faculty members who advance academic and social success for Latinx students in higher education in Colorado. Recipients are determined by a selection committee of CoCEAL members and board members.   

Lechuga was nominated by Manuel Del Real, Ph.D., executive director for Hispanic-Serving Initiatives Inclusion.  

“Her presence in the office; her commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion; and her leadership have helped not only elevate the visibility and make clearer the role of this office, but Dr. Lechuga has served a critical role in advancing inclusive excellence across the entirety of the campus community,” he said.  

Manuel Del Real

Lechuga is an associate professor in the Department of Chicana/o Studies and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s director of Faculty Diversity Research and Development. Her research addresses issues of race/ethnicity and education, with an emphasis on Latina/o/x sociology. She has examined the relationship between racial identities of Latina/o/x high school students and academic achievement. She has spent the past 13 years researching recruitment and retention of underrepresented faculty members in higher education, leading her to roles as co-chair of the Faculty Diversity Resolution Taskforce and the Faculty and Staff Recruitment and Retention subcommittee of MSU Denver’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council.  

“We don’t do this work alone,” Lechuga said. “We do it in community, and too often this work is invisible and rarely recognized. That is why this honor means so much, especially because it comes from Latinx peers from across Colorado working in higher education, many of whom, like myself, are rooted here.”  

Lechuga’s teaching endeavors revolve around student-centeredness, engaged pedagogy and anti-racism. She believes that student experiences are a starting point from which students can begin to see how everyone fits in a larger social context. As a Denver Public Schools graduate, she has seen the importance of working with local schools and has done so by examining school discipline and racial disparities in exclusionary practices and by teaching concurrent enrollment courses.

“I cannot think of a faculty member more deserving of the CoCEAL Faculty Impact Practice Award,” said Michael Benitez, Ph.D., vice president for Diversity and Inclusion. “Dr. Lechuga goes beyond and above her role as a faculty and staff member to assure the success of Latinx students at MSU Denver. Be it through her leadership collaborating with faculty on culturally responsive curricular development, her research on faculty representation, her service on faculty committees focused on addressing policy or her direct mentoring of students, Dr. Lechuga’s impact is evident.” 

Michael Benitez Ph.D.